“It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future...”

Friday, January 30, 2009

Morgan 2: Harold Morgan, Part VIII

The depression was on in the 1930’s and The Deseret News had reduced even the low salaries it was paying. We lived in this large home for more than a year and then moved to a two story, four bedroom home three blocks west on Third Avenue. Here we stayed for another year then moved to a three bedroom home on Seventh Avenue and H Street. It was while we were here we had a narrow escape in an automobile accident. Mom and Paul were taking me to work, going west on Seventh Avenue when a car speeding south on F Street hit the rear fender of our car turning it upside down. Luckily no one was hurt but unluckily the fellow who hit us was on relief and had no insurance.

Paul in the navy.

Cal in Coast Guard uniform and his wife Christel.

Our next move was 79 D Street, opposite the home of Pres. J. Reuben Clark. It was while here that our two sons, Paul and Cal volunteered for military duty. Paul going to the navy and Cal to the Coast Guard. I made an unsuccessful attempt to get in the Intelligence service, being past the age limit. However I did carry a gun, taking a job in the auxiliary military police guarding industrial installations.

For several months I was stationed with five other men at the Mt. Dell Reservoir above Salt Lake City in Parley’s Canyon. It was a good assignment. Three of us had a camp in a small grove of trees and the deer hunting was fine.

Helen.

It was while at D Street that our lovely daughter, Helen was married to William H. Ayrton, a young man in the Twentieth Ward. Mom served as secretary of the Ward Relief Society. She did an outstanding job and made friendships that have lasted until the present time.

It was while I was doing some publicity jobs after leaving The News that I broke my leg. Mom was forced to go to work and secured a position with the Auerbach company selling women’s shoes. She was soon a favorite in the store. I have been so proud of her all my life.

After the boys left for the service we moved to a place on Harmony Court, between Seventh and Eighth East Streets and facing South Temple Street.

It was while here that I secured a job with the Salt Lake Tribune. Because of the man power shortage during the war I did double duty. Often I worked 70 to 80 hours a week on the Tribune and Telegram. This was much the same pace until after the end of the war.

During 1949 I assisted in organizing the Salt Lake Newspaper Guild. Several previous attempts had failed. It was a bitter struggle but we were successful in forcing the company to jack up wages as much as 30 per cent. This also forced The News to raise salaries. But it also led to my undoing. When The Deseret News bought The Telegram and scrapped the latter, some 35 were separated from their jobs. This was in October 1952. Failing to get a steady job I took off for California in March 1953. While there I stayed with Cal and his wife Christel, whom he married while on leave from the Coast Guard.…

I thoroughly enjoyed myself, as I was able to get two or three good jobs on the San Francisco Examiner and was given permanent work on the Oakland Tribune when we received word that Mom had fallen down some steps while helping Helen and had pretty well broken herself up. I quit my job and went home.

Nicholas G. Morgan, Harold's half-brother.

The rest of that year I did publicity for the Utah State Fair and other odd jobs. We were having a tough time. In the winter of 54 I went to work for my brother, Nicholas G. Morgan. [For various reasons, the sequence of the events above may not be accurate.]

For the next two years or more I sold printing, worked in the print shop, helped Harry Miller put out a weekly newspaper and was associated with Horace Shurtliff in publication of a business daily. We were doing very well with the latter when certain officers of the Utah State Press Association decided we were doing too good and threatened to take us to court unless we desisted from soliciting advertising. Shurtliff decided not to fight so I was left without a job. I then secured a job with Salt Lake City. It was while working for the city that I received a phone call from an old friend, Lincoln Thomson in Pasadena, Calif. offering me a job on the Pasadena Independent. In the next day or two I was on my way to California.

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It's always wonderful to hear from relatives and friends, close or distant. This blog is an ongoing collaborative project, so if you have questions, memories or reminiscences, corrections, requests to use material, or additional pictures, documents, or histories to share, please leave a comment. We can't always see contact information in comments, so you can also contact Amy at amy ancestor files (that's all one word) at gmail dot com.

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It is good to look to the past to gain appreciation for the present and perspective for the future. It is good to look on the virtues of those who have gone before, to gain strength for whatever lies ahead. It is good to reflect on the work of those who labored so hard and gained so little in this world, but out of whose dreams and early plans, so well nurtured, has come a great harvest of which we are the beneficiaries. —Gordon B. Hinckley...